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Ah: The Teacher Has Become the Student (January 30, 2018, Columbia, Missouri)

As I reported earlier in this space, I teach a freshman composition / pop music class at Stephens College, and I’d assigned my students the task of not only highlighting every record they’d heard in this year’s Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll (so I could inventory their listening experiences and tailor my instruction to them), but also choosing an album or two they hadn’t heard, listening to it in full, then posting a reaction / assessment of it. This assignment has ended up being one of the best I’ve ever given. We’ve been taking about it avidly ever since they began working on it, and they took their explorations seriously. So seriously, in fact, that they began assigning me homework! One of my sharpest and most consistently surprising students chose to test-drive Power Trip’s Nightmare Logic, loved it, and insisted in her commentary that I check it out myself. I am not much of a metal fan, I’ll admit, but, especially on the above song, they have a punk power that pulled me in–and, hey, I could understand the lyrics (hmmm–a sign I am getting old)! I wrote the student about my reaction, and made a commitment to keep following the group; her typical interests are Latin music, EDM, and old school rhythm and blues!

Another student, who’d earlier this semester laughed at me because I had not heard of Cardi B, recommended not that I listen to something I’d asked her to explore from the list, but that I listen to something she’d picked out on her own: in this case, some “early” Cardi B, my objective being “hearing” the difference between her explosive current work and where she started. Specifically, she asked me to listen to (and watch, since I’d made a big deal about Cardi’s videos) “Foreva.” Actually, I had to admit that, while she hadn’t come into her own, really, that she started off a pretty effective MC. Here’s what I turned in, via email, on time:

Cardi B: “Foreva”

I hate to see women at each other’s throats, but they have to pay for that kind of back-stabbing! (Her teeth look fine!) All in all, her flow’s pretty good, but, you’re right, the lyrics are kind of standard. However, the chorus and music are pretty catchy, and I like the video. I swear, that woman looks different in every single video–facially different! My grade: A-

The student also asked that, since I frequently belabor students with my current passions (lately, Princess Nokia, Amodou and Mariam, P-Funk), I be “forced” to deal with one of hers: the Chicago MC Lil’ Durk. Again, she assigned me a specific song:

Don’t get the impression I was interested in any apple-polishing:

Lil’ Durk & Tee Grizzley: “What Yo City Like?”

Now, see, this reminds me why I didn’t get all enthusiastic about Durk: he rushes too much, and I don’t hear that much character in his delivery. The song’s subject matter is sad, but that’s how it is, and I like reports from the front. The detail is pretty good, but it could be more specific. Tee Grizzley didn’t make much of an impression on me, either.(actually they sound a little too alike to be teaming up). My grade: B

We all had a blast–I got some smart and entertaining feedback on my reaction, and, most important, the students seemed very excited about future explorations and exchanges. It must certainly seem a no-brainer, but these kind of exchanges are among the most effective tricks in the teaching book. I was happy to realize I hadn’t forgotten them, though, honestly, their application wasn’t pre-planned. Spontaneity has its place in the classroom, too, and not one in the darkest cobwebbed corner.

While we’re on the subject of teaching, during my time as a high school British literature teacher, I used to teach mini-lessons under the heading “Brit Lit Songwriter Series,” during which we’d explore the stylistic and thematic traits of some of the U.K. and Irish greats: Richard Thompson, Ray Davies, Shane MacGowan, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Strummer-Jones, and even Lemmy! The sneaky purpose of such units was to loosen students up for literary analysis; they tended not to realize they were doing what I wanted them to when music is involved. To my great regret, I never got to fashion one of these side-trips around the great Ian Dury.

Yesterday, in The Lab, I listened to a recent Dury acquisition. Have you ever had the realization you’ve relied to heavily on a particular artist’s greatest hits or best-of package, to the neglect of great album tracks? It became clear that I’d done so with Dury, as I was repeatedly delighted by tracks from New Boots ‘n’ Panties, the CD in question, that I’d never heard before:

(A great Father’s Day track!)

(A guaranteed public school smash!)

(A quite timely skewering of a misogynist!)

(A riotous character study!)

Talk about some opportunities for analysis, thematic investigation, and literary term application (by the way, a dollop of naughtiness always helps, and, in such cases as these when they actually arose in class, I always kept in mind the old Raymond Chandler idea about Shakespeare, and I’m paraphrasing and tweaking out a gendered noun: “Without vulgarity, there is no complete human.”):

Good evening, I’m from EssexIn case you couldn’t tellMy given name is DickieI come from BillericayAnd I’m doing very well

Had a love affair with NinaIn the back of my cortinaA seasoned-up hyenaCould not have been more obscenerShe took me to the cleanersAnd other misdemeanoursBut I got right up between herRum and her Ribena

Well, you ask Joyce and VickyIf candy-floss is stickyI’m not a blinking thickyI’m Billericay DickieAnd I’m doing very well

I bought a lot of BrandyWhen I was courting SandyTook eight to make her randyAnd all I had was shandyAnother thing with SandyWhat often came in handyWas passing her a mandyShe didn’t half go bandy

So, you ask Joyce and VickyIf I ever took the mickeyI’m not a flipping thickyI’m Billericay DickieAnd I’m doing very well

I’d rendez-vous with JanetQuite near the Isle of ThanetShe looked more like a gannetShe wasn’t half a prannetHer mother tried to ban itHer father helped me plan itAnd when I captured JanetShe bruised her pomegranate

Oh, you ask Joyce and VickyIf I ever shaped up trickyI’m not a blooming thickyI’m Billericay DickieAnd I’m doing very well

You should never hold a candleIf you don’t know where it’s beenThe jackpot is in the handleOn a normal fruit machine

So, you ask Joyce and VickyWho’s their favourite brickieI’m not a common thickyI’m Billericay DickieAnd I’m doing very well

I know a lovely old toe-ragObliging and noblesseKindly, charming shag from ShoeburynessMy given name is DickieI come from BillericayI thought you’d never guess

So, you ask Joyce and VickyA pair of squeaky chickiesI’m not a flaming thickyI’m Billericay DickyAnd I’m doing very well

Oh golly, oh goshCome and lie on the couchWith a nice bit of poshFrom Burnham-on-CrouchMy given name is DickieI come from BillericayAnd I ain’t a slouch

So, you ask Joyce and VickyAbout Billericay DickieI ain’t an effing thickyYou ask Joyce and VickyI’m doing very well